Chained is a knitwear capsule collection which consists of three oversized jumpers.
I took inspiration from observing a few photos I had taken out in nature, during the previous winter, and noticed they portrayed a few interesting movements and structures, that were created by the ramifications of wild plants and tress, whose branches, leaves, and limbs, crossed and intersected in a sort of artistic, yet somewhat geometrical, way.
I found it interesting how there always seems to be a certain continuity and order in the otherwise very complex environment called nature. Maybe it's just me, but it's from that very observation that I extrapolated the concept of focusing on those subsequent concatenations, and thought about re-elaborating it and applying it to my fashion project (hence the title of the project, "chained", a wiser choice of word for "concatenated").
After completing a thorough research of different techniques and yarns that could help me mimic the crossing I had observed, I was fascinated by a technique called "partial knitting", even though incredibly time-consuming, which involves knitting groups of stitches while others are held in a non-knit position, on the same piece work. It's usually used to shape the edges of a garment (e.g. a V neck or sleeves), but strong textural effects, like 3-D volumes and holes of any type, can also be produced. I've studied and practised this particular technique in order to create (subsequent) series of loops on each flat knitted pattern piece, that once connected would hold together and give the right shape to the whole garment.
I have developed three different magnitudes of loops (small - medium - large), by working different amounts of needles per loop (5, 8, and 12 needles), that allowed me expand the technique. Other than the quantity of needles put on work, the different sizes are also attributable to the thickness and the type of yarns that I’ve chosen (#1: thin, to create very small loops; # 2: thick and heavy, # 3: extra-bulky yarn created on the machine, using the same thin yarns of #1, hand knitted into even bigger loops).
The color palette is mainly constituted of various shades of brown and green, which again come from the “wild” environment of the forest above mentioned.
Being essentially inspired by nature, purpose of the collection it is to not create any further damage to the planet, through the waste of the materials used in the production process. All the yarns I’ve used are recycled from the yarn storage of Politecnico di Milano University (i.e. they aren’t literally recycled, but can still be considered a waste product, as they’re unused/unwanted yarns that have been given away to the University by Italian fashion factories).
The presence of tiny cavities between the eyelets and the "background" of the work also makes the garments incredibly elastic and comfortable. Last characteristic of the garments, is that you can undo and redo the work (by releasing the loops and re-connecting them) according to preference (loops can be connected in vertical columns, diagonals, horizontal lines, or even randomly!).
I'm the kind of person who likes to pay extreme attention to details and finishings. I'm no perfectionist but I do have ocd tendencies that often kick in in in my creative process and make me seek for techniques that require constant repetition, focus and precision. You'll get a better understanding of what I mean, once you look at the design I've produced.
The garments are produced mainly using the Brother KH-588 knitting machine, along with knitting needles (size 9) for garment #3.
I took inspiration from observing a few photos I had taken out in nature, during the previous winter, and noticed they portrayed a few interesting movements and structures, that were created by the ramifications of wild plants and tress, whose branches, leaves, and limbs, crossed and intersected in a sort of artistic, yet somewhat geometrical, way.
I found it interesting how there always seems to be a certain continuity and order in the otherwise very complex environment called nature. Maybe it's just me, but it's from that very observation that I extrapolated the concept of focusing on those subsequent concatenations, and thought about re-elaborating it and applying it to my fashion project (hence the title of the project, "chained", a wiser choice of word for "concatenated").
After completing a thorough research of different techniques and yarns that could help me mimic the crossing I had observed, I was fascinated by a technique called "partial knitting", even though incredibly time-consuming, which involves knitting groups of stitches while others are held in a non-knit position, on the same piece work. It's usually used to shape the edges of a garment (e.g. a V neck or sleeves), but strong textural effects, like 3-D volumes and holes of any type, can also be produced. I've studied and practised this particular technique in order to create (subsequent) series of loops on each flat knitted pattern piece, that once connected would hold together and give the right shape to the whole garment.
I have developed three different magnitudes of loops (small - medium - large), by working different amounts of needles per loop (5, 8, and 12 needles), that allowed me expand the technique. Other than the quantity of needles put on work, the different sizes are also attributable to the thickness and the type of yarns that I’ve chosen (#1: thin, to create very small loops; # 2: thick and heavy, # 3: extra-bulky yarn created on the machine, using the same thin yarns of #1, hand knitted into even bigger loops).
The color palette is mainly constituted of various shades of brown and green, which again come from the “wild” environment of the forest above mentioned.
Being essentially inspired by nature, purpose of the collection it is to not create any further damage to the planet, through the waste of the materials used in the production process. All the yarns I’ve used are recycled from the yarn storage of Politecnico di Milano University (i.e. they aren’t literally recycled, but can still be considered a waste product, as they’re unused/unwanted yarns that have been given away to the University by Italian fashion factories).
The presence of tiny cavities between the eyelets and the "background" of the work also makes the garments incredibly elastic and comfortable. Last characteristic of the garments, is that you can undo and redo the work (by releasing the loops and re-connecting them) according to preference (loops can be connected in vertical columns, diagonals, horizontal lines, or even randomly!).
I'm the kind of person who likes to pay extreme attention to details and finishings. I'm no perfectionist but I do have ocd tendencies that often kick in in in my creative process and make me seek for techniques that require constant repetition, focus and precision. You'll get a better understanding of what I mean, once you look at the design I've produced.
The garments are produced mainly using the Brother KH-588 knitting machine, along with knitting needles (size 9) for garment #3.
